Sinsi Hernández-Cancio, JD

Sinsi Hernández-Cancio is vice president for health justice at the National Partnership for Women & Families. She is a national thought leader in health and health care equity policy and advocacy, with many years of experience in advancing equal opportunity for women and families of color and advocating for increased health care access and improved quality of care for underserved communities. Sinsi is deeply committed to transforming our health care system to meet the needs of our rapidly evolving nation so we can all thrive together. She believes that our future prosperity depends on ensuring that our health care system routinely provides excellent, comprehensive, culturally centered, and affordable care for every single person, family, and community, which requires the dismantling of structural inequities, including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and religious bigotry.

Sinsi is a recognized leader in the national health equity movement, a sought-after strategic adviser, and a dynamic speaker. She has presented at national events across the country and served on numerous advisory committees for organizations including the National Academy of Medicine, the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She has published extensively and has appeared in national and state-level English and Spanish television, radio, and print media.

Sinsi’s extensive experience in health and health equity policy and advocacy spans state government, labor, and the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining the National Partnership for Women & Families, she was founding director of Families USA’s Center on Health Equity Action for System Transformation, where she led efforts to advance health equity and reduce racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in health outcomes and health care access and quality by transforming health care and delivery systems. Before that, she advised and represented two governors of Puerto Rico on federal health and human services policies, and she worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as a senior health policy analyst and national campaign coordinator for their Healthcare Equality Project campaign to enact the Affordable Care Act.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sinsi is bilingual and bicultural. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a law degree from New York University School of Law, where she was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Fellow. She also was awarded a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship.

Sinsi lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her husband, her teenage son, and two rescue dogs. She loves sci-fi, board games, and expressing her love for family and friends by feeding them.